Breakthrough in Metro Tunnel project as boring equipment link-up

The station currently being bored under Melbourne’s state library is starting to come together with the first station cavern now fully connected..

The roadheaders have been mining station caverns and underground passenger connections under Swanston Street, near Franklin Street, for the new State Library Station.

Seven machines known as "roadheaders" will be used in the CBD as part of the project – four for State Library Station and three for Town Hall Station.

This is a major breakthrough in Melbourne's metro tunnel project. (9News)

Each weighs 118-tonnes, is 15-metres long and is lowered underground in separate pieces, before being re-assembled underground.

The road headers have dug out more than 20 per cent of State Library Station, with excavation expected to be finished by late-2020.

As construction continues on the Metro Tunnel, Melbourne-based TTM Rail has been awarded the $1.6 million contract to fit out two X’Trapolis trains for High Capacity Signalling (HCS) to be tested on the Mernda Line.

Work has already begun to prepare the track between Epping and South Morang stations for testing in 2020.